Unit 1 Bargaining Team Reaches Tentative Agreements, Continues To Push for Fair Compensation and Manageable Workloads
On Thursday May 21 our Unit 1 team met with the state for additional conversations related to our ongoing concerns about both compensation and workload for our Unit 1 classifications while reaching TA’s on a number of important issues.
We presented proposals related to Arduous Duty Pay for FLSA exempt employees, strengthening the current language for employees working on CalFIRE’s incident command program, as well as protecting the R&R differential for Personnel and Payroll Specialists and employees at the Department of Social Service’s Disability Determination Services Division.
Our team again presented a proposal aimed at relieving the heavy workload experienced by our Personnel and Payroll Specialists, highlighting the importance of the work done by these classifications. Though the state team shared comments in support of the hard work of our Personnel and Payroll Specialists, ultimately, they were not interested in contract language that would alleviate their workload.
The state also responded to numerous outstanding Union proposals, including counter proposals related to Out of State and Professional Certification pay. They rejected the language our team presented related to properly scheduling Unit 1 FLSA exempt employees. Unit 1 Alternate Vice Chair, Vincent Green said “There is still a great deal of work to be done. We have to continue to guide the state to a place where they can consider us to be valued employees as opposed to widgets in a mill.”
While our team was disappointed with these rejections, it did reflect more movement at the table than we experienced before. “It’s too bad that the state isn’t willing to take steps to address the concerns that we have raised,” Susan Rodriguez, Chair of Unit 1, said, “But we have received more responses today than in the past three weeks.”
Among these responses was a tentative agreement with the state for CalHR to carry out a classification specification review of the Investigative Auditor, Department of Justice classification.
Our team met again on Tuesday May 26 to address outstanding language presented by both our Unit 1 team as well as the state team. We were able to come to more agreements on a number of important issues that expand protections and rights of our Unit 1 employees over the last month of meetings with the state.
To date, we secured tentative agreements on the following contract sections:
- 11.26.1 Arduous Duty Pay – Our Unit team secured language that requires the departments to provide written justifications to employees and the union when their requests for Arduous Duty Pay is denied.
- 11.74.1 Incident Command Pay – secured language making this language grievable to the second (departmental) level. Previously this language wasn’t subject to the grievance process at all, so this is a significant benefit for our Unit 1 employees performing this important work for CalFIRE.
- 13.15.1 EDD Determinations Scheduling Standard – creates additional support for our represented employees as they work through the constantly increasing EDD determinations workload. While this additional support only addresses part of our team’s concerns.
- 14.9.1 Classification Study Investigative Auditor – would require CalHR to perform a classification specification review for the Investigative Auditor, Department of Justice.
- 18.2.1 Permanent Intermittent Employees (EDD) – after agreeing in 2023 to briefly pause the required 20% ratio of Permanent Intermittent Employees, our Unit 1 team secured an agreement that reverts to the pre-2023 contract language. While this was a small shift, it reflects our team’s commitment to maintaining a functional permanent, full-time workforce at EDD.
- Side Letter on the Analyst Reclass – memorializes the side letter negotiated during the analyst reclassification carried out in 2025. This ensures that the rights and work groups we secured during the reclassification are protected for the life of this Contract and beyond
Additional proposals, including new economic proposals, will be discussed at additional Unit Table sessions or during our Main Table negotiations as our Bargaining Team shifts their focus to language, impacting multiple Units.
Please be on the lookout for additional updates and ways you can get involved as we continue our fight at the table.